


One Foot In, One Foot Out

by Magpythe



Category: Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Gen, Vampire AU, conan.....bad time had, heiji nightmare fuel, kaito will remember this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-18 01:00:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29481084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Magpythe/pseuds/Magpythe
Summary: Someone skates by with the skin of their teeth. Saguru would REALLY rather Kaito stay out of this kind of mess. Heiji and Saguru both have parents who hunt 'monsters' and grew up raised to handle that kind of horror. Neither of them would like to be choosing to do this, but here they are.
Relationships: Hakuba Saguru & Hattori Heiji, Hakuba Saguru & Kuroba Kaito | Kaitou Kid, Hattori Heiji & Kudou Shinichi | Edogawa Conan
Comments: 1
Kudos: 29





	One Foot In, One Foot Out

Slow, vivid and pulasing black, the screech of rusted metal giving out. Heiji reached out--but he was too slow. slower than gravity, wide eyes already sinking down too fast, dizzyingly fast, dizzyingly horrifying. A too small hand reached out, he and Ran were both nearly over the edge. They both watched him, wide eyes and frozen hearts. Kudou didn't make a sound. The section of metal he was on crashed loudly to the floor, impossible to see from here. The rusted metal gave a sickening screech as it gave out. As it gave out. As Kudou fell, eyes too wide, he was too far away--the rusted metal gave a screech as it gave---

Gasping, Heiji practically threw himself out of bed, across the room, eyes scanning the unfamiliar environment--if Kudou had been himself he could've reached him--why had it given out under the lightest of them---why did he have to be the one to move over that spot--

He took a few staggering steps back, then sat on the edge of the bed, and turned off the alarm on his phone.

He'd slept in. It would be about time for breakfast if his current housemate's punctuality was anything to have faith in.

Rhetorical 'if': the guy was practically neurotic, probably had some trauma related to being late or some shit.

Heiji took in a deep gulp of air. Breathing was  _ kinda  _ important, he reminded himself sarcastically.

Hell, he really wished he'd gotten up early enough to go through some kata or at least lose some tension in that gym room; as it was he was too hungry to put off breakfast for it at this point.

Maybe, Heiji thought as he changed into something more practical than pyjamas, Hakuba was running late. It seemed unlikely he wouldn't have knocked on the door by now--unless he had and left Heiji to sleep, but that didn't seem right when they had plans later in the day.

Whatever, he'd find out soon enough.

Heiji opened the door to the faint smell of food, and barely legible speaking coming from down stairs. He stopped, straining his ears. It didn't sound like his dad's voice--or Hakuba's dad either, so the situation probably wasn't dire. Maybe his housekeeper was over?

By the time he was close to the stairs down, it was obviously not Hakuba's baaya, and by the time he was halfway down the steps his heart was threatening to crawl out of his throat.

Heiji'd seen this guy here before. He knew it wasn't Kudou's voice he was hearing.

He took a moment to brace himself against the wall and breathe.

Maybe he'd need more than a moment.

"You get on me about being tight lipped," not-Kudou--Kuroba--was going off, "But you're being all grim and mysterious about this to the point that it almost feels hypocritical."

"Perhaps it would do to have some patience then," Hakuba sounded more tired than anything. "...Sausage?"

"I'll take some udon."

Hakuba was clearly getting a bowl out of the cupboard from the sound of things. "Did you simply choose not to eat before walking here?"

"I had breakfast."

"Was 'breakfast' an orange?"

"That's breakfast," Kuroba replied, a slight click from a utensil as he took the bowl. "Besides, I figured you'd make me eat something once I got here."

"You're lucky he isn't up yet or there wouldn't be any for you."

"I'd steal yours, and he is."

"How kind of you," Hakuba said, speaking a little louder, like he was walking away from the other guy. Footsteps matched the assumption, and Heiji pushed himself off the wall and ran a hand through his hair to do something to smooth out the bed hair.

Hakuba stopped at the corner, regarding him with the air of someone who had also only just gotten out of bed.

"Kaito's helping himself to breakfast. Do you want any?" He knew Hakuba just well enough to know that question held double meaning. If he answered no, the trip would be called off for the day and pushed off until the next weekend.

It also wasn't one that was hard to get wrong, since he was genuinely hungry.

"Obviously," he grumbled. Hakuba shot him a look like he knew exactly what the way his voice came out quieter than he'd meant to insinuated, even though it wasn't like he  _ knew _ Conan was Kudou Shin'ichi, and seeing Kuroba was really not fucking helping.

Even worse, Heiji was being eyed by him whenever he was outside Heiji's periphery.

He would've bitten Kuroba's head off if it didn't stop once the three of them sat down at a table. There it was at least quiet, with the silence only broken by the sounds of eating and the other two occasionally talking about things from their own lives and school.

Hakuba was the last to finish, apparently still choosing to have the social graces to wait to eat until Heiji had come down despite that being totally unnecessary.

"How about I do the dishes, and you go call Aoko about it," Kuroba eventually said. Heiji hadn't really been a hundred percent focused on their conversation, so there were about three things Kuroba could've been telling Hakuba to talk to the girl about, but the suggestion made Hakuba stop part way to the kitchen and turn to regard Kuroba and him a few times in turn, a look of consternation on his face. Heiji had to agree, it was too early for this.

"You...want to do the dishes," he eventually said, paragon of eloquence.

"Yeah, and Aoko's been whining about not getting to talk to you lately, so you're kinda required to call her."

"Right." Hakuba stayed standing in the same spot for a moment before seeming to remember the empty dishes in his hands. Heiji watched him take them to the kitchen, then start up the stairs, casting a glance back at the two of them as he went.

Alright, what was Kuroba's problem?

Heiji turned back to regard the phantom thief, only to immediately be met with a question seemingly out of nowhere.

"Did you leave your phone upstairs?"

Heiji shot him a look that screamed 'what the hell's your problem,' before confirming through a pat down of his pockets that yeah, he did.

Kuroba didn't wait for him to come up with a backhanded answer, just pushed on to the next question with a more serious look than Heiji could really remember ever seeing on him.

"I don't know if you're willing to talk to me," he started, blue eyes painfully drilling into him like Kudou's would have. "But I saw the police report of what happened in Yamamouri pass, and you're hating being around me right now. So I'm asking you what happened to Kudou Shin'ichi."

Heiji blinked, suddenly rooted to the ground. What the hell was--did he know who 'Conan' was, or was this some elaborate miscommunication.

"...Kudou Shin'ichi sure as hell doesn't come up in that report," Heiji managed, emotions starting to swirl dangerously together in his chest. "D'ya mind explainin' why I should tell you shit?"

Kuroba leaned back, movement controlled to a level that sent warning bells off in the back of Heiji's brain to be ready for a fight, and swept his hand near his head and chest with a flourish. "Do I look like I'm unrelated to any this?"

Heiji rolled that over in his brain.

Kuroba and Kudou did look eerily alike--while that didn't guarantee they were related, it sure as hell made a compelling argument for it, even if Kudou hadn't mentioned having any siblings. This guy could be a cousin, or some illegitimate half sibling. The fact that they looked like twins didn't make Kuroba someone Kudou or Heiji could trust, though.

Except that he already did, and Kudou had mentioned some sort of honor system he'd worked out with the guy, even if he didn't seem to like him.

But did Kudou really give Kuroba his identity? If they were related he could've just figured it out by looking at him for more than two seconds. That's how long Heiji figured it'd take himself to recognize de-aged Kazuha.

That wasn't even brushing into the part of what happened that made it so hard to explain to the police.

Heiji looked down at his hands.  _ Too damn slow _ ...

"Ya heard about any of the other shit Hakuba's dad does?"

Kuroba leaned forward, tense, still controlled, his eyes dark with...something. Heiji wasn't sure.

"I have." His voice was darker too.

"There were feral ghoul vampires down there, a whole group of em. They weren't too hard to avoid once we figured out what we were dealin' with--well, no one else knew they were a thing until then 'cept maybe Kazuha, but we managed to avoid 'em, only spot 'em at a distance, not shout--they couldn't really see, I think they'd been livin' in that place fer decades and it fucked em up. Probably woulda' burnt up if ya shined a uv light on em--anyway. We couldn't get out without goin' through their...nest? It was nasty and woulda' been a death sentence, but we found a way through one floor up where it looked like the place was fallin' apart enough we could get out from there, but..." Heiji swallowed. His fists clenched and unclenched. "Kudou found a bad spot and no one was close enough to catch him."

"...And you were over the 'nest,'" Kuroba ventured, voice still...like that.

Heiji nodded, his stomach turning.

"...So you're either going back today because you think there's a chance he's alive, or you want to get rid of the ghouls."

"I'm going back," Heiji's voice raised unintentionally, the mixing emotions starting to boil in his chest. "To get his damn body."

Kuroba hid what looked for a half a second like a grimace, face sliding into tense neutrality. They may look the same, but Kuroba acted like he was programmed to show as little real emotion as possible. It was stupidly infuriating. It was incongruous with Kudou most of the time--his emotions would always spill out in one way or another even when he was doing a damn good impression of...

Heiji took another deep breath. He may not be as obsessed with hiding how he felt as these people, but that didn't mean he was okay with having a breakdown in front of them--or anyone, really. He'd take having one in front of Kudou, right now, though.

Fuck. Just. He needed to do something with his hands and stop sitting and simmering.

Heiji nearly knocked the chair out behind him when he stood, and Kuroba stood after a pause when Heiji reached out and snapped the rest of the dishes away from the thief like he wanted to smash them into the damn wall. 

He did want to break them, but that would be a damn waste, and he'd look bad, and Kuroba didn't deserve to be around that, and Hakuba didn't deserve having his property smashed right now.

He washed the dishes loudly, Kuroba hanging around the edge of the kitchen as he worked, blissfully silent.

Not wanting to continue the conversation, Heiji washed everything until it seemed clean enough to be put back away again, and did so. He didn't like feeling watched, but at least he knew why it was happening. Eventually, though, he was left empty handed, and had to turn back around to face the Kudou doppelganger. Kuroba was looking thoughtful.

"You know what Hakuba really hates?" he started, an expression caught between being somber and smug.

Heiji sighed. He was trying to lighten the mood, apparently. "What?"

"When, Kuroba, you claim you're about to clean my dishes, and then I come down to find that Hattori's done them instead," Hakuba's voice said from the staircase. The short burst of adrenaline that had given him really wasn't helping his nerves, he cursed the two of them under his breath.

"I don't live here," Kuroba said with a shrug, his voice still flatter than usual.

Hakuba pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a slow breath. He apparently took his time counting to ten, since he stayed like that for longer than Heiji was used to. Eventually, though, he leveled a tired look on Kuroba.

"Kaito, as loath as I am to make you leave, I believe it's about that time."

"No, I'm coming with you, actually."

Hakuba stopped, then shot Heiji a look. Heiji ignored him in favour of running his hands over his face.

"...You are not," Hakuba started, clearly done with Kuroba butting into the situation. Heiji didn't really want him along, but if he was as capable as he seemed to be at getting out of danger, and he was actually related to Kudou, then he didn't have a case for refusing to let him come with them.

"I am. I assume you're driving there in a car, but if you don't want me in there with you I have a motorcycle."

Hakuba gave Heiji an exasperated look. "How much did you tell him?"

"He knows what happened."

Hakuba's face turned incredulous. "You told him everything?" 

Heiji shrugged in a 'more-or-less' way, with a short nod.

"Christ, Kaito, the two of us have, regrettably, been trained to respond properly to dangerous situations related to this since we were children. You wouldn't just be tagging along to help, you'd be putting yourself in a situation that could result in serious personal harm--and before you remind me that you don't mind, remember that I do." He looked like he wanted to say more, but silence hung in the air instead, before Kuroba broke it.

"I think I can hold my own, actually."

Hakuba was raking his hands over his face and through his hair, but that seemed to have been the end of that conversation.

And it both was and wasn't: Hakuba and Kuroba would break off to have brief, tense conversations out of earshot of Heiji while he got ready for the rest of the day, but when the time came Kuroba let himself into the backseat of the car after apparently having gone through a minor wardrobe change. Leather and denim were better for avoiding injury, so Heiji couldn't complain, but if he left to get changed, why hadn't Hakuba taken the chance to ditch him, if he hated the idea of bringing him along so badly?

Oh well. It wasn't important. What mattered was being prepared to take out several ghouls in combat, and that wasn't done lightly.

They'd wound up equipping Kuroba with a crossbow with silvered bolts, currently hidden away, a small glass container of silver dust, and the high lumen flashlight. If he kept his distance from the ghouls, which he seemed the most capable of between the three of them, he'd be fine.

The drive was quiet. If there'd been any question how dire this thing they were doing was, loading weapons and other precautions into the trunk had thrown that out the window. The tarp was less for obscuring what they were packing and more in case there was enough left of Kudou to take back that they'd need something waterproof.

He'd banished that line of thought as soon as it resurfaced. He knew enough about ghouls to be ready to look for anything fresh, even if it was just bones, and that was all the dwelling on it he needed.

Ghouls didn't turn people outside of freak accidents. There was only them and food, in their world.

It was obvious when they were getting close. He wasn't going to forget this forest any time soon.

The car pulled to a stop.

"...So they don't have great hearing, if you were able to survive being stuck in there with five of them."

"Yeah, They seemed to be relying on close range movement and smell. They probably rely on ganging up on anything that gets inside, rather than actively hunting." If they had, they probably wouldn't have starved to the point of turning into ghouls in the first place.

"Are they nearsighted, or do they have bad vision in the dark?"

"They're vampires," he wasn't really on board to keep talking about something that had already been nailed down well enough to move on.

Kuroba sighed. "You can just say you don't know."

The front door wasn't about to unjam itself, and they found an entry point that was marginally safer than the last one with Kuroba's help and a little more climbing. This room was a lot less horrifying than the first one they'd stumbled into--and through--last time. At least it immediately told them how fucked they were.

This room was bones and bloodstains free. It was still falling apart and molding, and Heiji wouldn't trust a single centimeter of this level's flooring ever again in his life, but there seemed to be decent chances of making it out of here successfully with the knowledge that they could come through here.

It turned out the door had been locked on the inside. Someone a long time ago must've escaped out the window. Good for them.

Kuroba took the time to oil the hinges before opening the door, and Heiji was already feeling a little better about him coming along, even if seeing him here hurt more than he'd like to admit to himself.

They needed to get to the ground level without attracting any attention to themselves. Heiji could remember where the stairs were, but the damn floor refused to let things be easy. It creaked and groaned under their feet like it was trying to get them killed.

Halfway down the hall, Kuroba's voice cut through the deathly silence in a whisper.

"Stop."

Heiji did, holding his breath.

"There's something around the corner," he finished, voice even more hushed, Heiji could barely hear it.

He let out a slow breath, sword ready.

To his left, a crossbow leveled, angled sightly down. He glanced over just in time to watch Kuroba whistle out a bird call.

What the hell was that for--

Heiji's train of thought was interrupted by two wide dark eyes staring down the hallway at them as one of the ghouls turned, charging toward them on all fours.

The bolt was sticking out just above one of the thing's eyes when it ground to a halt with a loud thud into the floor. 

Heiji looked back at Kuroba again, who was now wearing a grimace.

"...You've never done this before?" Keeping your aim straight at something that for all intents and purposes should have a conscious mind, while it was charging at you on all fours with its fangs bared? That was not fucking easy. None of it was. It looked like one of those parts was hitting him now. Heiji had a guess which one.

"Shh," Hakuba interjected. There was a threat somewhere in that sound, anger. It was good advice, though. They needed to see if everyone else was charging up the stairs now.

Kuroba set the next bolt.

"You should stand back," Heiji warned, quiet as he could. Kuroba didn't need to be a few feet from them, he needed to be back a few meters.

The next few moments he could only focus on listening to Kuroba's footsteps in case something went wrong, and his visual on the end of the hallway.

Silence. Nothing was running up the stairs.

The three of them turned in unison at the sound of something scratching.

It was coming from the room now across from Kuroba, then it was coming from the wall next to them as they rearranged to keep Kuroba out of a melee distance of whatever was on the way up. Maybe it was just a rat--but if the ghouls caught on to a rat they'd chase it, and the three of them would be right there, much tastier, and much more filling than one rat among four ghouls.

Something small moved at the junction of the wall and a particularly loose floorboard, then disappeared. Fingers?

The all too familiar, now, sound of something sniffing came from that same area.

Someone whispered, "Cards," and there was a tapping sound from the other side of the wall.

Slowly, Heiji registered just who he'd heard speaking.

He wanted to yell at the top of his lungs, but that was the last thing they needed--he turned to look between the other two. Hakuba returned an intense look, and Kuroba didn't notice, apparently, instead setting the crossbow down and pulling out what Heiji knew was a card gun from watching Kid heists on the television--and unloaded a half circle of cards into the wall.

The scrabbling noise returned, and seconds later Heiji could see a hand, small, scabbed, pushing the rotted section of wall out. He didn't waste any time. The sword was sheathed and he was pulling the thing between him and Kudou out of the way, shoving his arms into the gap, and pulling Kudou, miraculously breathing, back out and into a tight grip against his chest. His heart was just about beating out of his chest.

"We're going," he said, breathless, eyes glued to the unsteady floor as he retreated back to the first room feeling like his whole world was clasped against him.

Hakuba and Kuroba wound up behind him, and he looked back to see that the door had been locked behind them. Smart. Smart. They needed to get to the car. He needed to get down without letting go of Kudou. Or,  _ preferably  _ without letting go of him.

They managed to get Kudou down safely by sending Kuroba down first, Hakuba's call, and passing him down before Heiji got back onto solid ground and once again pulled up, though this time with a little less of a death grip.

Kudou felt small, he was cold, badly needed a bath, and had crusted dried blood in a couple places Heiji would have to investigate for wounds once they were moving, but mostly he was alive, and breathing, and physically here and now and in his arms and holy hell Heiji'd never swung from zero to a hundred in so little time before in his life.

Once Hakuba was down, Kudou, voice muffled from his position of pressing his forehead into Heiji's shoulder, said something. He could see Kuroba break out of whatever thought he was in to zone in with a degree of focus that had Heiji worried.

"What?" Was he hurt? Were they being chased?

"Put me down."

Heiji paused, torn. He...didn't want to, but if Kudou was asking, there had to be a reason.

He crouched down. The sun was still up, so they should be safe from the ghouls for now. Setting Kudou down only made him see just how terrible he really looked. He was way too pale...how much blood had he lost in those four days he was stuck here? Could he have gotten an infection from something? Gangrene?

Almost immediately, his shrunken friend teetered dangerously to the side, and Heiji brought his hands back up to his shoulders to steady him. 

"Nope, I'm carryin' ya."

"No--" Kudou started, voice shrill. A hand pressed into Heiji's shoulder. Kuroba was looking down at them, Hakuba approaching, looking a little lost.

"Hey," Kuroba said, and Kudou's head shot over to look at him. "Can it wait until we get back?"

There was an uncomfortable amount of silence before Kudou shook his head. Kuroba bit at his lip. Heiji was feeling a lot like he and Hakuba were out of the loop on something here.

"...What can't wait?" Heiji tried, eyeing the two of them.

"I...lost a lot of blood," Kudou said, like he was admitting to some sort of scandal. "And they didn't exactly have any food, so..."

"Yeah, there's no way we aren't takin' ya to a hospital but--"

"No--No Hattori let me finish."

He closed his mouth, giving Kudou a Look.

"You know how I'm alive? That's weird, right?"

Well, yeah, but it didn't matter if he'd made it out in the end. "Right."

Kudou sighed. It looked like whatever he was saying was hurting him. "They're feral, they're relying on instinct. There's no way I could've gotten out of that room I fell into alive if I was human, Hattori. Vampires don't have high fertility rates. They saw a kid that was a vampire and they felt compelled to keep it alive and raise it."

Heiji blinked, suddenly very aware of the heartbeat that had been pounding loudly in his ears for the last while. He swallowed.

Okay. Kudou was a vampire. He could live with that fact if Kudou could.

"So you need blood." He watched Kudou flinch at the statement. That drew out a frown from him. How long had Kudou been dealing with being a vampire. When did Kuroba find out? Were they both...?

"'s fine," he said as gently as he could manage with his nerves worn thin and his system full of adrenaline, taking off a glove and rolling up his sleeve. He watched Kudou regard the offered limb like it was going to bite him, not the other way around.

For a second, Heiji wondered if he was making some sort of social blunder for vampires, before Kudou took a nervous look behind him at the audience of two.

"...You clearly feel like shit, come on," Heiji said, hoping it was encouraging.

After more clear discomfort and deliberation, Kudou did eventually take Heiji's offer.

It stung a bit more than he thought vampire bites were supposed to, but then again Kudou was stuck in a child's body right now and that probably had an impact on things. It...was weird, having someone drink his blood through a bite on his arm. It was weirder having that wound get closed with saliva, but at least he knew it was coming, and it wasn't his neck. That would just have been awkward...

"Alright, better? Ready for a hospital?"

Kudou sighed, putting a hand on his shoulder to allow himself to be picked up. Heiji was happy to oblige.

"Yeah, if we have to." 

  
  
  
  



End file.
